Fifty-seven printers/converters and six educational institutions were honored April 30 as winners in the 2006 Excellence in Flexography Awards competition, sponsored by the Ronkonkoma, NY-based Flexographic Technical Association (www.flexography.org). In total, 50 golds, 49 silvers and 44 bronzes were bestowed during the group's Foundation of the FTA Annual Forum in Louisville, KY. The most difficult task of the awards judging was naming the six top prizes—the best of shows. They include:

Wide Web: Huggies® Lavender & Chamomile Wash/Shea Butter Lotion Wrap—Glenroy, Inc. (Menomonee Falls, WI): This entry (above left) tackled many of flexo's most problematic print issues, overcoming them with resounding results. "The key to the best-of-show win was the difficulty in maintaining consistency across the web, accuracy of the mount and press register, and use of process builds to make the packages as opposed to spot colors," says level-of-execution judge Dave Chinnis of Flint Group Printing Plates.

Narrow Web: Frances Coppola Presents Rosso Classic Wine Label—Paragon Label (Petaluma, CA): Judges saw this entry (above right) as a dog of a different color. "The key was having the black-and-white graphic, along with a color graphic on the same sheet," explains level-of-execution judge Ray Makura from Avery Dennison. "Any time you have a grayscale image right next to a color image, it's difficult to maintain both registration and the correct impression."

Preprinted Linerboard: P&G Baby Care™ Pampers Cruisers—SCI (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada): Degree-of-difficulty judge Russ Snyder of Genpak LLC regards the Pampers packaging (below) as being one of the toughest. "It goes from highlights to deep tones. Execution was superb. There are large areas of solids that would pick up dust or imperfections, but the printer kept it clean on unforgiving substrates." Using electronic prepress services from Schawk to produce 0.045-in. digital-flexo photopolymer plates, SCI printed the job with water-based inks on a CI-flexo press at 304 fpm.

Other top category winners were Mid Web: Victoria's Secret Very Sexy® For Her Body Lotion Packet—Label Technology, Inc. (Merced, CA); Combined Corrugated: Samsung DVD-SR 420 Box—Wellpappe Auerswalde GmbH (Lichtenau, Germany); Envelope: BANK ONE Disney Get Rewards that Make You Smile Envelope—Commercial Envelope Mfg. Co., Inc. (Deer Park, NY).